Some Good News: An ‘Elephant Baby Boom’ In One Kenyan National Park

A mother elephant and her calf head for a nearby marsh at Kenya’s Amboseli National Park on August 12. Amboseli National Park in Kenya is experiencing something of an elephant baby boom. The park, which sits at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, has reported the birth of more than 170 calves this year and counting. What’s more, two sets of twins were born this year, a rare occurrence according to Amboseli Trust For Elephants , a nonprofit conservation group in Kenya. By contrast, the Trust reported 113 new calves born in 2018. (2019 is not a good year for comparison because the gestation period for elephant pregnancies is up to two years.) "The main reason the population is rebounding is due to the surplus rains we have had over the past two years," Tal Manor, project manager for ATE , said in an email to NPR. "Baby booms are largely tied to ecological changes." In 2019, the International Rescue Committee reported higher than normal rains, which caused massive flooding, killed people and damaged crops in East Africa. The heavy rain came after the region had years of severe drought. For elephants, more rain means more vegetation for grazing and […]

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